Fight to remain pure in your faith (guarding the conscience)

1 Timothy 1:18-20 "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20 Among these areHymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme."

Introduction and Review

For the past couple of days we have been exploring what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 1:18 by the phrase "fight the good fight". Thus far we have discovered that we must fight for our victory of faith and fight for the faith itself. Today's post will wrap up this series by suggesting that in fighting the good fight, we must also fight for the purity in our faith.

Fight to remain pure in your faith (guarding the conscience). 1 Tim 1:19

The Apostle Paul emphasizes the need to not only keep one's faith in the process of "fighting the good fight", but also one's conscience. I assigned the idea of "purity" to this point for the fact that keeping one's conscience pure is so vital in the overall process of Christian growth. The Apostle Paul in writing this instruction to his protege in the ministry, Timothy, practiced keeping his own conscience pure before God. Acts 24:16 records Paul saying - "In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men." 

What exactly is the conscience? Why is how we treat the conscience so important in the Christian life? In your human soul, which is the true you, there is your soul's thinker - the mind; there is the feeler - the emotions; there is the chooser - the will and there is the seat of convictions - the conscience. Think of your conscience as the dashboard of your interior life that warns you if you have went to far or have transgressed some type of moral and spiritual boundary. David for example in 1 Samuel 24:5 "It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe." The conscience is that function of your soul that can voice accusation when you've done something wrong or commend you when you have exercised a right course of action. (Romans 2:15) Inside a Christian, when the Holy Spirit has taken up residence inside the persons innermost part - the human spirit, the conscience is made more sensitive to the things of God and awakens the mind, emotions and will to yield to the Spirit's leading. (Romans 8:14-16; 9:1)

Whenever a person contemplates giving into temptation or violating their conscience, the conscience can be weakened. (Romans 14:1; 1 Corinthians 8:7,10)  We could cite numerous other texts that warn about the seriousness of violating one's conscience. The act of ignoring and violating the conscience, or influencing another Christian to violate their own is viewed so severe in scripture that it is tantamount to sinning against Jesus Christ Himself. (1 Corinthians 8:12)

By identifying the conscience, it ought to be easy to see why it is important to be careful how we treat the conscience. After all, the conscience is where our convictions about right and wrong, and for the Christian, righteousness and unrighteousness are reinforced and expressed. The conscience is the super highway between the mind and the heart or the human spirit. If we clog up the conscience with poor choices and ungodly acts, we deaden our ability to hear the Holy Spirit addressing us in our human spirit. With a clear conscience, I can direct my mind to bring every thought under the authority and sway of Jesus Christ, which is the heart of true spiritual warfare. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4) Other passages such as 1 Peter 3:21; 2 Peter 1:3-11 and 1 John 3:1-3 all emphasize the need for purity and either imply or explicitly draw the connection between the need for Christian purity and the conscience. When my conscience is clean, I will take to heart what I read in Proverbs 4:23 to guard the heart, since from it flows forth the issues of life. 

Whenever we prioritize fighting for the purity of our faith, we are more effective witnesses for Jesus Christ and are in the position to hear God speak most clearly through His word. This is why Paul made it such a point to get across to Timothy the need to guard the purity of his faith in the realm of his conscience. To not do so is to be in the sad state of affairs like Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1 Timothy 1:20. Truly the Christian life is all about fighting the good fight.

Closing thoughts
These last few days have been dedicated in unfolding what Paul meant when he said to "fight the good fight". We discovered that in fighting the good fight, we are...

1. Fighting for our faith's victory
2. Fighting for our faith. 
3. Fighting for the purity of faith or guarding one's conscience.

Fight to keep your faith

1 Timothy 1:18-20 "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme."

Introduction and Review

Yesterday we began considering what Paul meant by the phrase "fight the good fight" in 1 Timothy 1:18. We discovered that other scriptures utilize this imagery of "fighting" to describe the Christian life. We concluded in yesterday's post that one of the meanings we can ascribe to this phrase is that of "fighting for the victory of faith". The Christian life is not meant to be lived in passivity. There is no cruise control on the steering column of the Christian life. In as much as we do "wait upon the Lord" (Isaiah 40:31) and trust in Him (Proverbs 3:5-6), we also at the same time must work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), being that God is the one working forth in us His perfect and pleasing will (Philippians 2:13).

In having looked at the victory of faith itself, we now consider the second meaning for this phrase "fight the good fight", namely fighting to keep your faith.

Fight to keep your faith. 1 Tim 1:19-20

The Apostle Paul writes two words in the opening of 1 Timothy 1:19 "keeping faith". The phrase "keeping faith" refers to maintaining in one's possession something that had been previously given. This command about "keeping faith" is vitally important for Christian to keep in mind as the "fight the good fight". Paul reinforces this statement by sounding a word of warning about two individuals who gave up "fighting the good fight" and thus failed to "keep the faith". 

A snapshot of what happens when we stop fighting for the faith
In 1 Timothy 1:20 we read - "Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme." Scholars are not 100% certain who Alexander was, however we do know for certain the identity of Hymenaeus. Hymenaeus is mentioned one other time by Paul in his later letter of 2 Timothy 2:17-18 - "and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some." What sign was there that this man had ceased fighting the good fight? 

For one thing, he was in doctrinal error as indicated by the fact he was claiming that "the resurrection has already taken place." In reading this phrase, it appears that his error was in asserting an alternative non-physical resurrection, and thus denying the future bodily resurrection of all saints, and more importantly, by implication, the denial of Jesus' bodily resurrection. The Bible Knowledge Commentary notes: "Greek philosophers typically viewed the soul as immortal and the body as its temporal prison. The idea of physical resurrection of the body, both Christ's and the Christian's, was therefore foreign and difficult for them to grasp. Hence there was a natural tendency toward heresies which rejected bodily resurrection. The heresy of Philetus and Hymenaeus probably involved the idea that resurrection was a purely spiritual affair which occurred at conversion or baptism."

The sign of when "fighting for one's faith" has ceased is when we cave into doctrinal error, but notice also how Hymenaeus gave into moral error. The damage he inflicted on the body of Christ is described by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:20 as "upsetting the faith of some". Now back in 1 Timothy 1:20 we read of Paul "handing him over to Satan", a round about way of saying that Hymenaeus had underwent some sort of church discipline. Undoubtedly there would had been a prolonged period of begging Hymenaeus to turn from his doctrinal error, per Jesus' instructions in Matthew 18. Sadly, such warnings wene unheeded and Hymenaeus was crossing moral bounderies and convincing others to follow him in his error. According to 2 Timothy 2:16 we read - "But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness." We know that he did not cease from his activity because when Paul wrote 2 Timothy some 3-4 years later, Hymenaeus' teaching was considered to be like rotting flesh or "gangrene". 

Reinforcing the fact that we need to fight for our faith 
2 Corinthians 6:7 presses us on to fight for our faith - "in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left". Jude 1:3-4 urges us - Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehandmarked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

What practical ways do we fight for our faith from the scriptures? First, claim the promises of God (Heb 12:1-3; 2 Peter 1:3-4). Secondly, make it your business to avoid sin (1 Thess 4:3). Thirdly, be all about instanct obedience to Jesus (John 14:21-23; Eph 6:10). Fourthly, follow the example of Jesus as set forth in the Gospels, proclaimed in Acts and explained in the epistles (Luke 2:38-42; Acts 10:38-41; 1 Peter 2:21).

Thus we fight the good fight of faith by fighting for our victory of faith and fighting for the faith itself. Tomorrow we will consider one more area in defining what it means to "fight the good fight"......

Fight for your victory of faith

1 Timothy 1:18-20 "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight."

Introduction:

In today's post we want to understand what it means to "fight the good fight". As Paul wrote this first letter to young Pastor Timothy, he was instructing him on how one ought to conduct themselves in the living God's church (1 Timothy 3:15). In this first chapter of the letter we see Paul reminding Timothy and us of the important place church membership has in the growth of the Christian. (1 Timothy 1:1-11). As Paul lays out the anchoring points for his letter, he then pauses to thank the Lord for all that He did in calling Him in salvation and as an apostle, concluding his statements with a doxology of worship. (1 Timothy 1:12-17) Today's post considers Paul's tone as switching from that of thanksgiving to that of a general to a junior officer: fight the good fight. So what is meant by this phrase: "fight the good fight"? 

Fight for your victory of faith. 1 Tim 1:18

Commentator Adam Clarke notes regarding this phrase "fight the good fight" or as the KJV translates "war a good warfare": "The trials and afflictions of the followers of God are often represented as warfare and campaign." Isaiah 49:2 is cited by Clarke as evidence, being that it initially refers to God's original calling of Israel His people: "He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver." Interestingly enough Isaiah words later in that same chapter would set the stage for a Messianic prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all Christians abide by grace alone through faith alone.

The Apostle Paul in particular was very fond of this military imagery in describing the Christian life. 1 Corinthians 9:7 utilizes this imagery and then 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 describes the Christian's fight of faith most pointedly: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

Other passages such as Ephesians 6:10-12 commands us to wage the fight of faith by being "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might". Then of course who can forget the final words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."

All of these references have two things in common that are the cornerstones to today's post: fighting as a theme of the Christian life and secondly, victory in the Christian life. Christians living, working and making their pilgrimage through this world compose the church militant - the fighting church which ever advances Christ's Kingdom through missions, living Godly lives and saying no to sin. Romans 8:37-39 captures most clearly the tone of victory that is at the center of this idea of "fighting the good fight":  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Tomorrow we will consider further all that is entailed in "Fighting the good fight"....

Tests Determining True from False Miracles: Pointing to the Biblical Jesus

Deuteronomy 13:1-3a “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams...".

Introduction and Review

The past couple of posts have been concerned with determining what are genuine miracles from God versus those that are of a counterfeit nature. We have considered two tests thus far: namely that a genuine Divine miracle will point back to the True and Living God and will confirm His Word, the Bible. 

I felt it necessary to include this particular discussion in this overall blog series on miracles because of the prevailing challenges posed by false religions and skeptics alike. This overall series has been concerned with both defining miracles and discerning true ones from false ones. The proposed definition of a miracle that emerged from our study is the following: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs the confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger." As we aim to draw this overall series on miracles to a conclusion, we will consider one more indicator regarding whether or not a given phenomena or event is a genuine miracle from God, namely....

True miracles point to the Biblical Jesus 

In Acts 16:16-18 we read: "It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” 18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment. This episode helps us to see clearly the difference between a counterfeit miracle and a true one.

The girl following Paul and his companions had a familiar spirit, a spirit of divination that had her owners claiming her ability to foretell the future. This girl's demonic possession was so-powerful and convincing that her unscrupulous masters had profited much from both her exploitation and the curious people who were willing to pay the price. As the girl followed Paul around, she told the truth about what Paul was doing, but notice the subtlety of the message: namely that attention was being put upon Paul, not Jesus! Paul could not allow this deceiving spirit to continue and so by the power of Jesus exorcised the demon.

This point is so vital because in today's world we have many religions and groups claiming to do miracles and speak in the name of God. However, in evaluating their claims, is their message and alleged miracles pointing to the Jesus revealed in the Bible or to the speaker or some other figure? 

Jesus Christ Himself came by means of one of the greatest miracles - the virgin birth. As God in human flesh, Jesus Christ was and still is the very embodiment of not only the miraculous, but the source of all true miracles: God Himself.  We read for example in John 10:25 "Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me." Then later on Jesus states plainly in  John 10:38 "but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

Closing thoughts

It is vital that we as God's people know how to discern truth from error. In-as-much as these past several posts have labored to show the reality of miracles, we must hasten to be sure that what we are seeing and hearing are genuine miracles (in the Biblical sense). We have seen that in order to discern true from false miracles, we must use the following three tests:

1. Does the miracle point to God?

2. Does the miracle point to His Word?

3. Does the miracle point to the Biblical Jesus?

Tests for determining true from false miracles: True miracles confirm God's Word

Deuteronomy 13:1-3a “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams...".

Introduction and Review

A couple of days ago we looked at the first test for determining true from false miracles: http://pastormahlon.blogspot.com/2014/11/tests-for-determining-true-from-false.html. This overall series on the miraculous has been concerned with both defining miracles and demonstrating their reality. This particular portion of the series is aiming to discern between true and false miracles, since God in the scripture reveals certain "tests" for doing so. The proposed definition of a miracle that emerged from our study is the following: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs the confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger."

We saw a couple of days ago that a true miracle will point people to the True and living God, whereas a counterfeit miracle will point to anything or anyone else but God. Today we consider how a true miracle will confirm God's Word.

True miracles confirm God's Word

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 states: "You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." Bible prophecy can be classed under the general designation of miracle, being that it is irregular, is directly done (or in this case 'spoken') by God, includes a sign (written words, or additional signs by the prophet or apostle communicating them) and confirms the message, messenger and God Himself (whether salvation or judgment). 

Why did Moses labor so hard in writing what He did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? There were false prophets claiming to speak in the name of the Lord in His day. Men such as Balaam in the book of Numbers convinced thousands of Israelites to follow him and commit immorality. (Numbers 22-25) In this case we have a prophet claiming to speak for God, however are his supposed "prophecies" corresponding to the words of scripture previously revealed? Does his message accurately predict the future? 

Isaiah 41:21-33 poses a similar test of judging whether a religious claim or a prophet is true or false based upon whether or not they accurately predict the future and describe the past. 

A true miracle will serve to point back to the scriptures and to the God revealed in them.  If any alleged miracle, sign or wonder does not point back to the Bible, the only conclusion to be drawn is that the source of the miracle or prophecy is either a human sleight-of-hand or occultic activity.

More tomorrow.....

Jesus teaches us how to be thankful

1 Corinthians 11:24
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I wish all who read this post today a happy Thanksgiving. I can think of no more appropriate person to look to give thanks nor learn from in giving thanks than Jesus Christ. In today's post I wanted to consider the instances in which Jesus gave thanks throughout his ministry.  How He gave thanks sets the pattern for the Christian in cultivating a life of thanksgiving to Him. Since giving thanks was common for Jesus throughout His earthly ministry, then it stands to reasons that giving thanks leads to Christ-like-ness. Below I will list all the references we find in the Gospel accounts concerning the times in which Jesus gave thanks.  My prayer is that they edify and encourage you and I in our faith walk. May you, dear reader, enjoy this wonderful day and give thanks to Jesus Christ our Savior, Lord and Treasure!

Matthew 15:36
"and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people."

Matthew 26:27
"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you."

Mark 8:6
"And He *directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people."

Mark 14:23
"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it."

Luke 22:17
"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves."

Luke 22:19
"And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

John 6:11
"Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted."

John 6:23
"There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks."

Tests for determining true from false miracles - Points to the True God

Deuteronomy 13:1-3a “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams...".

Introduction and Review

We have been taking time to consider the simple question: what is a miracle? In the past four posts, we have explored various passages of scripture to arrive at a full answer to the question. The proposed answer and definition of a miracle that emerged from our study is the following: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs that confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger." 

We labored to show that contrary to what skeptics may say, the world in which we live and the scientific laws used to describe such a world do not exclude the possibility of miracles. Dr. Norman Geisler in his book: "Unshakable Foundations", quotes a helpful insight from C.S Lewis' book "God in the Dock": "This point of scientific method shows (what no one to my knowledge ever denied) that if miracles did occur, science, as science, could not prove, or disprove, their occurrence.What cannot be trusted to recur is not material for science: that is why history is not one of the sciences. You cannot find out what Napoleon did at the battle of Austerlitz by asking him to come and fight again in a laboratory with the same combat - go to the records. We have not, in fact, proved that science excludes miracles: we have only proved that the question of miracles, like innumerable other questions, excludes laboratory treatment."  

From the above quote and the observations made over the past few posts, there can be no doubt that to say there are absolutely no such thing as miracles is not based on scientific findings but rather skeptical worldview assumptions. 

With the above point made clear, and the definition of a miracle stated, we need to explore whether or not we can tell the difference between "true miracles" and counterfeits. Why? Because other non-Christian religions make claims to miracles. Mormonism for instance claims that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the "Book of Mormon" was a revelation from God. Mormons will claim that their religion is a continuation of Biblical Christianity and actually corrects some of what was lost in the ensuing 2,000 year history of the Christian church. Can such claims be truly evaluated? This blogger thinks they can. This blogger will propose that three tests from the Bible can evaluate whether a given miracle claim (whether it be a sign, wonder, working, revelation or vision) that claims to be from God is actually from God. Today's post will consider the first of those tests.

How to tell the difference between true and false miracles

True miracles point to the True God

In our proposed definition for miracles we stated: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs the confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger." Out of all the words in this definition, the most important one is the term "God". When looking at a potentially miraculous event, we need to ask whether or not the miracle points us to the God of the Bible or to a demonic source. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 is an interesting text in that it does not deny the possibility of false prophets and counterfeit miracles. 

In the opening text of today's post, the assertion being made by Moses is that just because a miraculous event has been done does not necessarily mean God is the source of it. The key phrase in the passage is found in Deuteronomy 13:2, where the worker of the alleged miracle tells the people to go after other gods and serve them. According to the remainder of Deuteronomy 13:3, we read that God in His Sovereignty permits such activity to test the people to see where their heart are at. 

So a counterfeit miracle will not point to the true and living God but rather will point to the demonic forces behind such counterfeit signs. Let the reader be reminded that any god or deity worshiped by man is a demon (1 Corinthians 10) and is not the True and Living God of scripture. 

So would Joseph's Smith's alleged visions, Book of Mormon and the other Mormon literature (Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants) pass the above test? In having read those documents, we discover from Mormonism that God is not the One God revealed in Three Persons of the Bible. Rather the Mormon deity is a multitude of gods that were men who became deified. The god over this world of ours was, in Mormon teaching, a man like us who became a god. The Mormon Jesus is going through the process of development. Just by viewing the Mormon teaching on God, we discover that their view of deity and the Biblically revealed God are totally different, thus marking Mormonism as a non-biblical religion and the Book of Mormon and its attendant volumes as books of a man's imagination. 

In a future post we will consider another test we can use to determine if a given miracle claim is a true miracle from God or a fraud.